Autism

The Autism Act 2009 committed the government to publishing an adult autism strategy to transform services for adults with autism.

What this means for the workforce
Every health or social care service should be ready to provide services to people with autism, or to their families or others who care for them. The Autism skills and knowledge list has been developed to help improve awareness of autism and skills among workers in generic health and social care services.

Autism is a developmental condition that affects communication and interaction, influencing the way a person understands the world around them. The condition affects people in different ways and therefore it is essential that the wider workforce understands the implications of autism and is able to adapt the way they work to maximise the benefits for individuals with autism.

Resources
The Autism skills and knowledge list has been developed jointly by Skills for Care, Skills for Health and the National Autistic Society to help enhance awareness of autism and improve skills among workers in generic health and social care services.

The Autism skills and knowledge list enables individual workers or services and teams, to assess whether they have the knowledge and skills needed to provide a good service to people who have autism. It can also be used to design training and development for the wider workforce including those with little knowledge and experience of autism.

The list was developed in consultation with over two thousand people including health and social care professionals, commissioners and managers and around 150 people who have autism and over 800 family carers.

Professionals in the training field may also find an accompanying document, Implementing the Autism skills and knowledge list through staff training and development , useful in helping them to co-ordinate future activity in this area. 

Click here for related sources.
To find out about the government autism legislation - how you can support people affected by autism and what action local authorities are taking to implement the act please click here.

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Some policies, strategies and guidance were developed under the previous government and as such may be subject to review by the Coalition Government.